What’s wrong with California’s state government leaders?

After making 37 movies, Steven Spielberg could be excused for making a self-indulgent movie. As an aspiring filmmaker in an age when most people saw “moving pictures” as entertainment and not real art, he would naturally feel out of step. Now, with his movies grossing $10 billion, Spielberg works from a platform that would allow him to tell a straightforward biographical story of a young Jewish kid growing up to become an auteur filmmaker. It would probably make money, too.

The US is still in a state of emergency for Covid-19 and monkeypox. However, the country has another longstanding and quickly worsening public health concern—mental health. According to mentalhealth.gov, about 20 percent of American adults experienced a mental health issue in 2020. Nearly 1 in 20 Americans live with a severe mental illness. 

Feast and football. That’s what many of us think about at Thanksgiving. Most people identify the origin of the holiday with the Pilgrims’ first bountiful harvest. But few understand how the Pilgrims actually solved their chronic food shortages.

Congresswoman Karen Bass has defeated developer Rick Caruso, the California Globe reports, becoming Los Angeles’ first African American mayor since 1993. Bass is also the first woman to hold the position—something of a stepdown for her.

As Lee E. Ohanian notes, only about one in four California students are proficient in math, English, and science, a sign that California’s broken K–12 school system “is getting even worse,” despite average spending of nearly $500,000 per year per classroom. By contrast, students perform at a very high level at the Kairos charter school in Vacaville. Their success shows the potential of charter schools, but there’s something about them that parents, students, and legislators should know.

In June, the collapse of Terra Luna shook the foundations of the cryptocurrency sector. The contagion that followed drove a handful of other major firms, including Celsius, Voyager, and Three Arrows Capital out of business. But assumptions that the worst had come to pass, and that the wheat had separated from the chaff, were premature. The bankruptcy filing of FTX has even more fundamentally damaged perceptions of the asset class, and sent valuations tumbling to lows not seen in several years.

In its 2022 fiscal year, the U.S. national debt increased by $2.5 trillion. But the U.S. government’s budget deficit for the year was $1.375 trillion. How is that possible?

The soccer World Cup, the largest sporting event on the planet, will start on Sunday, November 20, in Qatar. The participants and the public at large face a dilemma. By enabling the success of the event, are they condoning human rights abuses and the absence of basic freedoms? Or are they doing just the opposite by bringing attention to those very issues with their participation and forcing the host country to give the people a taste of freedom for the duration of the tournament and a chance to engage in a frank discussion with the outside world? 

If you look up “capitalism fights racism” in Google, the top search results will show articles like: “Is Capitalism Racist,” “Capitalism without Racism: Science or Fantasy,” and, “The Rise of Capitalism and the Emergence of Racism.”